He named a sum twice his original figure.
Topri gasped.
Siona looked at Topri. "Do you have that much?"
"Not quite, but we agreed on..."
"Give him what you have, all of it," Siona said.
"All of it?"
"Isn't that what I said? Every coin in that bag." She faced the Museum Fremen. "You will accept this payment." It was not a question and the old man heard her correctly. He wrapped the blade in its cloth and passed it to her.
Topri handed over the pouch of coins, muttering under his breath.
Siona addressed herself to the Museum Fremen. "We know your name. You are Teishar, aide to Garun of Tuono. You have a suk mentality and you make me shudder at what Fremen have become."
"Lady, we all have to live," he protested.
"You are not alive," she said. "Be gone!"
Teishar had turned and scurried away, clutching the money pouch close to his chest.
Memory of that night did not sit well in Siona's mind as she watched Topri wave the crysknife copy in their rebel ceremony. We're no better than Teishar, she thought. A copy is worse than nothing. Topri brandished the stupid blade over his head as he neared the ceremony's conclusion.
Siona looked away from him and stared at Nayla seated off to her left. Nayla was looking first one direction and now another. She paid special attention to the new cadre of recruits at the back of the room. Nayla did not give her trust easily. Siona wrinkled her nose as a stirring of the air brought the smell of lubricants. The depths of Onn always smelled dangerously mechanical! She sniffed. And this room! She did not like their meeting place. It could easily be a trap. Guards could seal off the outer corridors and send in armed searchers. This could be too easily the place where their rebellion ended. Siona was made doubly uneasy by the fact that this room had been Topri's choice.
One of Ulot's few mistakes, she thought. Poor dead Ulot had approved Topri's admission to the rebellion.
"He is a minor functionary in city services," Ulot had explained. "Topri can find us many useful places to meet and arm ourselves."
Topri had reached almost the end of his ceremony. He placed the knife in an ornate case and put the case on the floor beside him.
"My face is my pledge," he said. He turned his profile to the room, first one side and then the other. "I show my face that you may know me anywhere and know that I am one of you."
Stupid ceremony, Siona thought.
But she dared not break the pattern of it. And when Topri pulled a black gauze mask from a pocket and placed it over his head, she took out her own mask and donned it. Everyone in the room did the same thing. There was a stirring around the room now. Most of the people here had been alerted that Topri had brought a special visitor. Siona secured her mask's tie behind her neck. She was anxious to see this visitor.
Topri moved to the room's one door. There was a clattering bustle as everyone stood and the chairs were folded and stacked against the wall opposite the door. At a signal from Siona, Topri tapped three times on the door panel. waited for a two count, then tapped four times.
The door opened and a tall man in a dark brown official singlet slipped into the room. He wore no mask, his face open for all of them to see - thin and imperious with a narrow mouth, a skinny blade of a nose, dark brown eyes deeply set under bushy brows. It was a face recognized by most of the room's occupants.
"My friends," Topri said, "I present Iyo Kobat, Ambassador from Ix."
"Ex-Ambassador," Kobat said. His voice was guttural and tightly controlled. He took a position with his back to the wall facing the masked people in the room. "I have this day received orders from our God Emperor to leave Arrakis in disgrace."
"Why?"
Siona snapped the question at him without formality.
Kobat jerked his head around, a quick movement which fixed his gaze on her masked face. "There has been an attempt on the God Emperor's life. He traced the weapon to me."
Siona's companions opened a space between her and the ex-Ambassador, clearly signaling that they deferred to her.
"Then why didn't he kill you?" she demanded.
"I think he is telling me that I am not worth killing. There is also the fact that he uses me now to carry a message to Ix."
"What message?" Siona moved through the cleared space to stop within two paces of Kobat. She recognized the sexual alertness in him as he studied her body.
"You are Moneo's daughter," he said.
Soundless tension exploded across the room. Why did he reveal that he recognized her? Who else did he recognize here? Kobat did not appear the fool. Why had he done this?
"Your body, your voice and your manner are well known here in Onn," he said. "That mask is a foolishness."
She ripped the mask from her head and smiled at him. "I agree. Now answer my question."
She heard Nayla move up close on her left; two more aides chosen by Nayla came up beside her.
Siona saw the moment of realization come over Kobat his death if he failed to satisfy her demands. His voice did not lose its tight control but he spoke slower, choosing his words more carefully.
"The God Emperor has told me that he knows about an agreement between Ix and the Guild. We are attempting to make a mechanical amplifier of... those Guild navigational talents which presently rely on melange."
"In this room we call him the Worm," Siona said. "What would your Ixian machine do?"
"You are aware that Guild Navigators require the spice before they can see the safe path to traverse?"
"You would replace the navigators with a machine?"
"It may be possible."
"What message do you carry to your people concerning this machine?"
"I am to tell my people that they may continue the project only if they send him daily reports on their progress."
She shook her head. "He needs no such reports! That's a stupid message."
Kobat swallowed no longer concealing nervousness.
"The Guild and the Sisterhood are excited by our project," he said. "They are participating."
Siona nodded once. "And they pay for their participation by sharing spice with Ix."
Kobat glared at her. "It's expensive work and we need the spice for comparative testing by Guild Navigators."
"It is a lie and a cheat," she said. "Your device will never work and the Worm knows it."
"How dare you accuse us of..."
"Be still! I have just told you the real message. The Worm is telling you Ixians to continue cheating the Guild and the Bene Gesserit. It amuses him."
"It could work!" Kobat insisted.
She merely smiled at him. "Who tried to kill the Worm?"
"Duncan Idaho."
Nayla gasped. There were other small signs of surprise around the room, a frown, an indrawn breath.
"Is Idaho dead?" Siona asked.
"I presume so, but the... ahhh, Worm refuses to confirm it."
"Why do you presume him dead?"
"The Tleilaxu have sent another Idaho ghola."
"I see."
Siona turned and signaled to Nayla. who went to the side of the room and returned with a slim package wrapped in pink Suk paper, the kind of paper shopkeepers used to enclose small purchases. Nayla handed the package to Siona.
"This is the price of our silence," Siona said, extending the package to Kobat. "This is why Topri was permitted to bring you here tonight."
Kobat took the package without removing his attention from her face.
"Silence?" he asked.
"We undertake not to inform the Guild and Sisterhood that you are cheating them."
"We are not cheat..."
"Don't be a fool!"
Kobat tried to swallow in a dry throat. Her meaning had become plain to him: true or not, if the rebellion spread such a story it would be believed. It was "common sense" as Topri was fond of saying.
Siona glanced at Topri who stood just behind Kobat. No one joined this rebellion for reasons of "common sense." Did Topri not realize that his "common sense" might betray him? She returned her attention to Kobat.
"What's in this package?" he asked.
Something in the way he asked it told Siona he already knew.
"That is something I am sending to Ix. You will take it there for me. That is copies of two volumes we removed from the Worm's fortress."
Kobat stared down at the package in his hands. It was obvious that he wanted to drop the thing, that his venture into rebellion had loaded him with a burden more deadly than he had expected. He shot a scowling glance at Topri which said as though he had spoken it: "Why didn't you warn me?"
"What..." He brought his gaze back to Siona, cleared his throat. "What's in these... volumes?"
"Your people may tell us that. We think they are the Worm's own words, written in a cipher which we cannot read."
"What makes you think we..."
"You Ixians are clever at such things."
"And if we fail?"
She shrugged. "We will not blame you for that. However, should you use those volumes for any other purpose or fail to report a success fully..."
"How can anyone be sure we..."
"We will not depend only on you. Others will get copies. I think the Sisterhood and the Guild will not hesitate to try deciphering those volumes."
Kobat slipped the package under his arm and pressed it against his body.
"What makes you think the... the Worm doesn't know about your intentions... even about this meeting?"
"I think he knows many such things, that he may even know who took those volumes. My father believes he is truly prescient."
"Your father believes the Oral History!"
"Everyone in this room believes it. The Oral History does not disagree with the Formal History on important matters."
"Then why doesn't the Worm act against you?"
She pointed to the package under Kobat's arm. "Perhaps the answer is in there."
"Or you and these cryptic volumes are no real threat to him!" Kobat was not concealing his anger. He did not like being forced into decisions.
"Perhaps. Tell me why you mentioned the Oral History."
Once more, Kobat heard the menace.
"It says the Worm is incapable of human emotions."
"That is not the reason," she said. "You will get one more chance to tell me the reason."
Nayla moved two steps closer to Kobat.
"I... I was told to review the Oral History before coming here, that your people..." He shrugged.
"That we chant it?"
"Yes."
"Who told you this?"
Kobat swallowed, cast a fearful glance at Topri, then back to Siona.
"Topri?" Siona asked.
"I thought it would help him to understand us," Topri said.
"And you told him the name of your leader," Siona said.
"He already knew!" Topri's voice had found its squeak.
"What particular parts of the Oral History were you told to review?" Siona asked.
"The... uhhh, the Atreides line."
"And now you think you know why people join me in rebellion."
"The Oral History tells exactly how he treats everyone in the Atreides line!" Kobat said.
"He gives us a little rope and then he hauls us in?" Siona asked. Her voice was deceptively flat.
"That's what he did with your own father," Kobat said.
"And now he's letting me play at rebellion?"
"I'm just a messenger," Kobat said. "If you kill me, who will carry your message?"
"Or the message of the Worm," Siona said.
Kobat remained silent.
"I do not think you understand the Oral History," Siona said. "I think also you do not know the Worm very well, nor do you understand his messages."
Kobat's face flushed with anger. "What's to prevent you from becoming like all the rest of the Atreides, a nice obedient part of..." Kobat broke off, aware suddenly of what anger had made him say.
"Just another recruit for the Worm's inner circle," Siona said. "Just like the Duncan Idahos?"
She turned and looked at Nayla. The two aides, Anouk and Taw, became suddenly alert, but Nayla remained impassive.
Siona nodded once to Nayla.
As they were sworn to do, Anouk and Taw moved to positions blocking the door. Nayla went around to stand at Topri's shoulder.
"What's... what's happening?" Topri asked.
"We wish to know everything of importance that the ex-Ambassador can share with us," Siona said. "We want the entire message."
Topri began to tremble. Perspiration started from Kobat's forehead. He glanced once at Topri, then returned his attention to Siona. That one glance was like a veil pulled aside for Siona to peer into the relationship between these two.
She smiled. This merely confirmed what she had already learned.
Kobat became very still.
"You may begin," Siona said.
"I... what do you..."
"The Worm gave you a private message for your masters. I will hear it."
"He... he wants an extension for his cart,"
"Then he expects to grow longer. What else?"
"We are to send him a large supply of ridulian crystal paper." "For what purpose?"
"He never explains his demands."
"This smacks of things he forbids to others," she said.
Kobat spoke bitterly. "He never forbids himself anything!"
"Have you made forbidden toys for him?"
"I do not know."
He's lying, she thought, but she chose not to pursue this. It was enough to know the existence of another chink in the Worm's armor.
"Who will replace you?" Siona asked.
"They are sending a niece of Malky," Korbat said. "You may remember that he..."
"We remember Malky," she said. "Why does a niece of Malky become the new Ambassador?"
"I don't know. But it was ordered even before the Go... the Worm dismissed me."
"Her name?"
"Hwi Noree."
"We will cultivate Hwi Noree," Siona said. "You were not worth cultivating. This Hwi Noree may be something else. When do you return to Ix?"
"Immediately after the Festival, the first Guild ship."
"What will you tell your masters?"
"About what?"
"My message!"
"They will do as you ask."
"I know. You may go, ex-Ambassador Kobat."
Kobat almost collided with the door guards in his haste to leave. Topri made to follow him, but Nayla caught Topri's arm and held him. Topri swept a fearful glance across Nayla's muscular body, then looked at Siona, who waited for the door to shut behind Kobat before speaking.
"The message was not merely to the Ixians, but to us as well," she said. "The Worm challenges us and tells us the rules of the combat."
Topri tried to wrest his arm from Nayla's grip. "What do you..."
"Topri!" Sonia said. "I, too, can send a message. Tell my father to inform the Worm that we accept."
Nayla released his arm. Topri rubbed the place where she had gripped him. "Surely you don't..."
"Leave while you can and never come back," Siona said.
"You can't possibly mean that you sus..."
"I told you to leave! You are clumsy, Topri. I have been in the Fish Speaker schools for most of my life. They taught me to recognize clumsiness."
"Kobat is leaving. What harm was there in..."
"He not only knew me, he knew what I had stolen from the Citadel! But he did not know that I would send that package to Ix with him. Your actions have told me that the Worm wants me to send those volumes to Ix!"
Topri backed away from Siona toward the door. Anouk and Taw opened a passage for him, swung the door wide. Siona followed him with her voice.
"Do not argue that it was the Worm who spoke of me and my package to Kobat! The Worm does not send clumsy messages. Tell him I said that!" -= Some say I have no conscience. How false they are, even to themselves. I am the only conscience which has ever existed. As wine retains the perfume of its cask, I retain the essence of my most ancient genesis, and that is the seed of conscience. That is what makes me holy. I am God because I am the only one who really knows his heredity!
- The Stolen Journals The Inquisitors of Ix having assembled in the Grand Palais with the candidate for Ambassador to the Court of the Lord Leto, the following questions and answers were recorded:
INQUISITOR: You indicate that you wish to speak to us of the Lord Leto's motives. Speak.
HWI NOREE: Your Formal Analyses do not satisfy the questions I would raise.
INQUISITOR: What questions'?
HWI NOREE: I ask myself what would motivate the Lord Leto to accept this hideous transformation, this worm-body, this loss of his humanity? You suggest merely that he did it for power and for long life.
INQUISITOR: Are those not enough?
HWI NOREE: Ask yourselves if one of you would make such payment for so paltry a return?
INQUISITOR: From your infinite wisdom then, tell us why the Lord Leto chose to become a worm.
HWI NOREE: Does anyone here doubt his ability to predict the future?
INQUISITOR: Now then! Is that not payment enough for his transformation?
HWI NOREE: But he already had the prescient ability as did his father before him. No! I propose that he made this desperate choice because he saw in our future something that only such a sacrifice would prevent.
INQUISITOR: What was this peculiar thing which only he saw in our future?
HWI NOREE: I do not know, but I propose to discover it.
INQUISITOR: You make the tyrant appear a selfless servant of the people!
HWI NOREE: Was that not a prominent characteristic of his Atreides Family'?
INQUISITOR: So the official histories would have us believe.
HWI NOREE: The Oral History affirms it.
INQUISITOR: What other good character would you give to the tyrant Worm?
HWI NOREE: Good character, sirra?
INQUISITOR: Character, then?
HWI NOREE: My Uncle Malky often said that the Lord Leto was given to moods of great tolerance for selected companions.
INQUISITOR: Other companions he executes for no apparent reason.
HWI NOREE: I think there are reasons and my Uncle Malky deduced some of those reasons.
INQUISITOR: Give us one such deduction.
HWI NOREE: Clumsy threats to his person.
INQUISITOR: Clumsy threats now!
HWI NOREE: And he does not tolerate pretensions. Recall the execution of the historians and the destruction of their works.
INQUISITOR: He does not want the truth known!
HWI NOREE: He told my Uncle Malky that they lied about the past. And mark you! Who would know this better than he? We all know the subject of his introversion.
INQUISITOR: What proof have we that all of his ancestors live in him?
HWI NOREE: I will not enter that bootless argument. I will merely say that I believe it on the evidence of my Uncle Malky's belief, and his reasons for that belief.
INQUISITOR: We have read your uncle's reports and interpret them otherwise. Malky was overly fond of the Worm.
HWI NOREE: My uncle accounted him the most supremely artful diplomat in the Empire, a master conversationalist and expert in any subject you could name.
INQUISITOR: Did your uncle not speak of the Worm's brutality?
HWI NOREE: My uncle judged him ultimately civilized.